Either you’ll have to deny Jesus and return fully to Islam or you’ll have to confess him and accept the consequences.

And when that day comes, when you have to choose, choose Jesus.

Yes, it will cost you everything.

Yes, you’ll lose people you love.

Yes, you might face violence or death.

I won’t lie to you about that.

But I’ll also tell you that he’s worth it and that he will be with you no matter what happens.

In the meantime, be wise, be careful, protect yourself and your family, but don’t deny him in your heart.

Keep reading the Bible, keep praying, keep seeking fellowship however you can, even if it’s just online with other believers you’ll never meet.

and trust that God has a plan.

He brought you to faith for a reason.

He’ll make a way for you when the time is right.

Just don’t give up on him.

Because he’ll never give up on you.

Do Christians in free countries who can worship openly without fear, who’ve never faced persecution for your faith, I have a message for you, too.

Wake up.

Wake up to what’s happening to your brothers and sisters around the world.

We are being persecuted.

We are being imprisoned.

We are being killed right now.

Today, while you’re sitting in comfortable churches, singing worship songs without fear.

We’re hiding in secret rooms, whispering our prayers, afraid of being discovered.

While you’re debating theological fine points and church programs, we’re facing actual life and death decisions about our faith.

While you’re complaining that someone was rude to you for being a Christian, we’re being tortured and murdered.

I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty.

I’m saying it because you need to know.

You need to know what’s happening.

You need to know that persecution isn’t ancient history.

It’s happening now and you need to do something about it.

Pray for us.

Please pray for us.

Pray for believers in Saudi Arabia and Iran and Pakistan and North Korea and Somalia and every other place where following Jesus can get you killed.

Pray for those of us who have been separated from our families.

Pray for those who are in prison.

Pray for those who are being tortured.

Pray for those who are about to die.

Your prayers matter.

They really do.

I felt them even when I didn’t know who was praying.

I felt the prayers of believers around the world holding me up.

But don’t just pray.

Advocate.

Speak up.

Use whatever influence you have, whatever platform you have to tell the world what’s happening to Christians in restricted countries.

When your government has opportunities to help persecuted believers, push them to do so.

When organizations are working to help us, support them.

When refugees from our countries come to yours, welcome them.

and support missions and ministries that are working in the hardest places.

Support the underground church.

Support the translation work that gets Bibles into restricted countries.

Support the radio and internet ministries that reach into closed nations.

Your freedom comes with responsibility.

You have the ability to help us.

Please use it.

And one more thing, don’t take your freedom for granted.

I had everything I thought made life worth living.

And I lost it all for Jesus.

You have freedom to worship, freedom to gather, freedom to speak about your faith, and sometimes you don’t even use it.

You have Bibles in your language, as many as you want, and you don’t read them.

You have churches on every corner and you don’t attend them.

You have the freedom to share the gospel and you stay silent.

Please don’t waste what you have.

Don’t waste your freedom.

Use it.

Use it to worship Jesus boldly.

Use it to grow in your faith.

Use it to tell others about him because you don’t know how long you’ll have it.

Freedom can disappear faster than you think.

And ask yourself, if persecution came to your country tomorrow, if being a Christian became dangerous where you live, would your faith survive?

Would you be willing to lose everything for Jesus?

I’m not trying to judge you.

I’m asking you to examine your heart because one day you might have to answer that question for real to Muslims who are searching for truth, who have questions about Islam, who feel that emptiness I felt.

I want to speak to you with respect and love.

I was where you are.

I was a devoted Muslim.

I believed in Allah with all my heart.

I followed every rule.

I did everything I was supposed to do.

And I was empty inside.

I don’t say this to mock Islam or to disrespect you.

I say it because it’s true.

And maybe you feel it, too.

Maybe you’ve been praying five times a day and fasting during Ramadan and reading the Quran and you still feel like there’s something missing.

Maybe you’ve been trying to earn Allah’s favor and you’re exhausted from the effort.

Maybe you have questions you’re afraid to ask.

Questions about things in the Quran or the Hadith that trouble you.

Questions about whether Allah really loves you.

Questions about whether you’re doing enough to get to paradise.

I had those questions and I was terrified of them because I thought having questions meant I was weak in faith.

But now I understand questions are not weakness.

Questions are the beginning of finding truth.

I want to tell you about Jesus.

Not to force you to believe, not to trick you or deceive you, just to share what I found.

Jesus claimed to be God in human form.

He said he was the way to God.

Not just a way, but the only way.

He said he came to give eternal life to everyone who believes in him.

And then he proved it by dying on a cross for our sins and rising from the dead three days later.

I know Islam teaches something different.

I know you’ve been told that Jesus was just a prophet, that he didn’t really die, that Christians are mistaken.

But I’m asking you to investigate for yourself.

Read the Gospels.

Read what Jesus actually said and did.

Don’t just accept what you’ve been told about Christianity.

Look at the evidence yourself.

I did, and I found that Jesus was telling the truth.

I found that salvation is not something you earn by being good enough.

It’s a gift.

Jesus paid the price for our sins.

And all we have to do is accept that gift by believing in him.

I found that God is not distant and unknowable.

He is a father who loves his children.

He wants a relationship with you, not just your obedience.

I found peace.

I found forgiveness.

I found love.

I found everything I had been searching for my whole life.

Yes, it cost me everything.

I lost my family.

I lost my position.

I was set on fire and left to die.

But I gained Jesus.

And he is worth more than everything I lost.

I’m not asking you to make the decision I made right now.

I’m just asking you to be open, to ask the questions, to search for truth, even if it leads somewhere you didn’t expect.

God will reveal himself to those who genuinely seek him.

If you ask him to show you the truth, he will.

Just be ready for the answer.

Because when you find truth, you’ll have to decide what to do with it.

And that decision will change your life.

To those who don’t believe in God at all, who think all of this is superstition or delusion, I want to say something to you, too.

I understand your skepticism.

I really do.

This story sounds incredible.

A man set on fire who survives because God miraculously put out the flames.

It sounds like something from a movie or a fantasy novel.

If someone had told me this story before it happened to me, I might have been skeptical, too.

But it happened.

It really happened.

And I have the scars to prove it.

The doctors who treated me couldn’t explain how I survived.

The burns were severe, thirdderee in places.

I should have died from shock or infection, even if the fire hadn’t killed me outright.

But I didn’t die.

I’m here.

I’m alive.

And there’s no natural explanation for that.

I’m not asking you to just believe me because I say so.

I’m asking you to consider the evidence.

Consider that I had everything to lose and nothing to gain by converting to Christianity.

I lost my family, my position, my safety, my comfort.

What would motivate me to make that choice unless I believed it was true?

Consider that I was willing to burn alive rather than deny Jesus.

People don’t die for things they know are lies.

They might die for things they mistakenly believe are true, but not for deliberate lies.

Consider that there are thousands of people like me in countries all over the world who are risking everything for Jesus, who are being imprisoned, tortured, killed.

Why would they do that for a fairy tale?

Consider that Christianity has survived 2,000 years of persecution.

Empires have tried to stamp it out.

Governments have tried to eliminate it.

And yet it keeps growing, especially in the places where it’s most persecuted.

There’s something real here, something that can’t be explained away by psychology or sociology or wishful thinking.

I found Jesus and he changed everything.

He’s more real to me than anything else in my life.

You don’t have to believe me, but I’m asking you to at least consider it.

Consider that maybe, just maybe, there’s a God who loves you, who made you, who wants to know you, and consider what you’ll do if it’s true.

To everyone listening, regardless of who you are or what you believe, I want to tell you what I learned from all of this.

I learned that faith costs something.

Real faith always costs something.

It’s easy to believe when belief is convenient.

The test comes when belief becomes costly.

I learned that Jesus is faithful even when we’re not.

I denied him for months, living a double life, teaching Islam while believing in him.

And he never left me.

He was patient with me.

He waited for me to find courage.

I learned that God’s love is not something we earn.

It’s something we receive.

All my life in Islam, I tried to earn Allah’s favor by being good enough.

I was exhausted by the effort and never sure if I had done enough.

But Jesus love is a gift freely given to those who believe in him.

I learned that suffering has purpose.

I don’t understand all of it.

I don’t know why God allowed me to go through what I went through.

But I know it wasn’t meaningless.

My suffering has become my testimony.

My scars have become my platform to share the gospel.

I learned that we are not alone.

Even in the darkest moments, even in the fire itself.

Jesus was with me and he’s with every believer who is suffering.

We are never abandoned.

I learned that the church is a family that transcends every human boundary.

The believers who took me in, who cared for me, who loved me, came from different countries and spoke different languages, but we were one family in Christ.

That’s real.

That’s powerful.

I learned that persecution cannot stop the gospel.

They tried to kill me to silence the testimony of a Muslim background believer, but they failed.

I’m alive and I’m telling my story to anyone who will listen.

Every attempt to silence the gospel only makes it spread more.

I learned that Jesus is worth everything.

Every cost, every sacrifice, every loss, he is worth it all.

I want to end by telling you what I’m doing now and why I’m sharing this story publicly.

After I recovered from the burns after I found my Christian community, I knew I couldn’t stay silent.

I had survived for a reason.

God had saved me and I needed to tell people why.

So, I started sharing my testimony.

first with small groups of believers, then in online forums, then with Christian organizations that work with persecuted believers.

And now I’m sharing it with you.

I know it’s dangerous.

I know that speaking publicly about my conversion and my survival makes me a target.

There are people who would still like to silence me to finish what they started in that desert.

But I can’t be silent.

Too many people need to hear this message.

Secret believers need to know they are not alone.

Persecuted Christians need to know people care.

Muslims searching for truth need to know about Jesus.

And comfortable Christians need to wake up to what’s happening in the world.

My life is not my own anymore.

I gave it to Jesus the night I first believed in him.

He bought me with his blood on the cross and then he saved me from the fire.

My life belongs to him and I’ll use it however he wants.

If that means speaking out despite the danger, then that’s what I’ll do.

If it means eventually dying for my faith, then I’ll die.

I’ve already faced death once.

I know Jesus is on the other side.

I’m not afraid anymore.

But until that day comes, I’ll keep telling my story.

I’ll keep testifying to what Jesus has done.

I’ll keep being a voice for the voiceless and a witness to the world.

I look at my scars every day.

They’re permanent.

They’ll be with me for the rest of my life.

When I first got them, I hated them.

They were reminders of the worst night of my life.

Reminders of pain and fear and loss.

But now I see them differently.

These scars are proof.

Proof that I was set on fire for my faith.

Proof that I should have died.

Proof that Jesus saved me.

These scars are my testimony.

Every time someone asks about them, I get to tell them about Jesus.

Every time I see them, I remember his faithfulness.

The fire couldn’t consume me because Jesus wouldn’t let it.

The flames couldn’t destroy me because he had more for me to do.

I am a walking miracle, a living testimony, a witness to the power and love of Jesus Christ.

and I will spend every day I have left making sure people know what he did for me.

There’s a verse in the Bible that has become very important to me.

It’s from the book of Revelation and it talks about believers who overcome Satan.

It says they triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

By the blood of the lamb, by what Jesus did on the cross, we have victory.

By the word of our testimony, by telling what Jesus has done, we overcome.

And by not loving our lives more than we love Jesus, by being willing to die rather than deny him, we triumph.

That’s what I’m trying to do.

to live out that verse to testify to what Jesus has done to show that he is worth more than life itself.

I didn’t choose this path.

Or maybe I did when I chose to follow Jesus.

But either way, this is where God has led me and I wouldn’t change it.

Even with all the pain, all the loss, all the suffering, I wouldn’t go back because I know Jesus now.

I’ve experienced his love, his presence, his faithfulness, and that’s worth everything.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Why am I sharing such a painful personal story with the world?

Because it’s not about me.

It’s about Jesus.

It’s about what he can do.

It’s about who he is.

It’s about how much he loves us.

If he loved me enough to save me from that fire, he loves you enough to save you from whatever you’re facing.

If he was faithful to me in my darkest moment, he’ll be faithful to you in yours.

The message of my story is simple.

Jesus is real.

He saves and he is worth following no matter the cost.

That’s the message I lived for.

That’s the message I was willing to die for.

And that’s the message I’ll keep proclaiming for as long as I have breath.

The fire couldn’t consume me because God wasn’t finished with my story.

He had more for me to do.

He had this testimony for me to share.

And now you’ve heard it.

The question is, what will you do with it?

If you are being persecuted, will you hold on to Jesus?

If you’re a secret believer, will you trust that God has a plan?

If you’re a comfortable Christian, will you wake up and help your suffering brothers and sisters?

If you’re a Muslim searching for truth, will you investigate Jesus?

If you’re a skeptic, will you at least consider that this might be real?

What will you do with this testimony?

Because it’s not just a story.

It’s an invitation.

An invitation to know the Jesus I know.

To experience the love I’ve experienced.

To find the truth I found.

He’s waiting for you with open arms.

Ready to forgive.

Ready to save.

Ready to transform your life.

All you have to do is come to him.

Believe in him.

Trust him.

Yes, it might cost you everything.

It cost me everything, but you’ll gain far more than you lose.

You’ll gain Jesus, and he is worth it all.

I don’t know what the future holds for me.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep sharing my story publicly or if eventually someone will succeed in silencing me.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see my children again in this life.

I don’t know how long I’ll live or how I’ll die.

But I know who holds my future.

I know Jesus has me in his hands.

And I know that nothing, not fire, not persecution, not even death can separate me from his love.

That’s enough.

That’s more than enough.

So I’ll keep walking forward one day at a time, trusting him, following him, testifying about him.

And if you’re on this journey too, if you’re following Jesus despite the cost, know that you’re not alone.

We are walking together, the global church, the family of God, united by our faith in Christ.

We’ll face hardship.

We’ll face persecution.

Some of us will face death, but we’ll face it together.

And we’ll face it knowing that Jesus has already won the victory.

Death couldn’t hold him.

And it won’t hold us either.

One day, we’ll all be together in his presence, no more tears, no more pain, no more persecution, no more fear, just Jesus and his people and perfect joy forever.

That’s the hope I’m holding on to.

That’s the promise that keeps me going.

And until that day comes, I’ll keep telling my story.

I’ll keep pointing people to Jesus.

I’ll keep saying what the fire proved to be true.

Jesus saves.

Jesus is faithful.

And Jesus is worth everything.

That’s my testimony.

That’s my message.

That’s my life.

The fire couldn’t consume me because God had more for me to do.

And now I’ve done it.

I’ve told you my story.

What you do with it is up to you.

But I pray you’ll choose Jesus.

I pray you’ll find the truth I found.

I pray you’ll experience the love that saved me from the fire.

Because he’s real.

He’s here and he’s waiting for you.

Don’t wait too long to find him.

Life is short.

Eternity is long.

Choose wisely.

Choose Jesus.

May God bless you wherever you are, whatever you’re facing.

May he reveal himself to you.

May he draw you to his son.

And may you come to know the love that I know, the love that saved me, the love that will never let me go.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

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